Bacteria grow on MSM agar plate without carbon source - (Aug/06/2012 )
Hi all,
Recently I conducted experiment on growing bacteria on MSM agar plate with various C-source (using the spot test). To my surprise, I found bacteria grew on the control plate without C-source. It only happened to two bacteria genus (I tested six).
Is it really possible for certain bacteria to eat the agar as their carbon source? (I used agar noble)
-kimoe-
Do you mean the medium described here?
Minimal salts medium for studies of hydrocarbon degradation in soil contained 4 g of NaNO3, 1.5 g of KH2PO4, 0.5 g of Na2HPO4, 0.0011 g of FeSO4 · 7H2O, 0.2 g of MgSO4 · 7H2O, and 0.01 g of CaCl2 per liter of water at pH 7.0
Yes, there are microorganisms capable of using agar as C-source. Also could be some C-fixation if there is a suitable E-source.
Do you wash your inocula? Residual media may be present. In this case, colonies are usually punctiform.
-El Crazy Xabi-